Brazilian hacker creates Twitter-like app shielded from NSA gaze

In a post-Snowden world where NSA surveillance has been exposed as ubiquitous, one man decided to invent a networking system akin to Twitter, but with one key difference: It would be surveillance-proof and completely decentralized. Meet ‘Twister.’

Miguel Freitas was always a big Twitter fan – especially as it
drummed out information on the June mass protests in his native
Brazil at a time when no competent up-to-the-minute source
existed locally.

But even though Twitter to him symbolized what decentralized
media is, Freitas, in an interview with Wired magazine, opened up
about his feelings that a world in which the NSA apparently has
its nose in every conceivable internet communication would soon
need new avenues for information exchange. Ten years of people
blissfully communicating their daily routines and locations to
Facebook, Twitter and other services have led to large segments
of society seeking a newer, upgraded kind of networking, Freitas
says.

Using his programming skills, Freitas created an open-source
Twitter-like service run on a Bitcoin platform. Doing so is key
to the technology; Twister allows its users to share posts
without them being later stored in one place or server. Its
decentralized nature means that it cannot be targeted and erased
by a third party. Nor will that party be able to tell if a user
is online, what their IP address is and who they follow.

The test version Freitas produced with collaborator Lucas Leal
runs on Android, Apple OSX and Linux, and works off a user-run
server, or one run by someone the user trusts. Unlike Twitter,
Twister’s peer-to-peer architecture works without a central
server.

“Twister is a microblogging peer-to-peer platform, that is,
it is a distributed system like bittorrent or similar file
sharing technologies. Being completely decentralized means that
no one is able to shut it down, as there is no single point to
attack. The system is also designed so it cannot be censored,
freedom of speech cannot be taken from you. And because the
cryptography is employed end-to-end, no entity is able to spy on
your communications,” Freitas explains on Twister’s homepage.

Using bitcoin’s architecture and verification methods, the app
similarly ensures that users do not cheat the system by
registering twice or using someone else’s account to post
updates. And this system of control is not operated by humans,
but by a network of Twister computers run through a BitTorrent
protocol (BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer download client), which
ensures that posts are automatically and quickly posted, and
without a central server.

The Twister protocol works in a similar way to bitcoin miners.
But unlike the miners, which unlock digital currency, the miners
on Twister are used to verify users. In exchange for allowing
themselves to be registered on the network, users receive the
ability to share promoted posts. This is something that can be
used for both personal and other reasons, even social causes.

There is only one catch, which Freitas points out. Allowing for
the possibility that your internet traffic is monitored, that
means so is your IP address. And that in turn can be tied to your
Twister account. This is why, according to Wired, Freitas
suggests that users use the Tor Project’s anonymity software.

In recent months, as more and more Snowden leaks were revealed
and the extent of the National Security Agency’s PRISM and other
programs was uncovered, the size of Tor’s user base went through
the roof.

However, it appears that the NSA also does not wish to let up, as
in recent months it has announced plans to create a quantum
computer – a machine that handles so many operations per second
it can crack virtually any form of online protection.

That does not have to mean the other side will not adapt, of
course. The success of Twister is in its completely open-source
architecture, which means it can be re-modeled for a variety of
uses.